Hooded Claw

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“	I'll get you, Penelope Pitstop!	„
	~ The Hooded Claw swearing revenge.

Sylvester Sneekly, also known as the Hooded Claw, is the main antagonist of the Hanna-Barbera animated series The Perils of Penelope Pitstop, a spin-off of Wacky Races, and the Scooby-Doo! Team-Up comic book Perils Before Swine.

He was voiced by the late Paul Lynde, who also voiced Mildew Wolf.

Biography[]

The Hooded Claw was the disguise used by heiress Penelope Pitstop's lawyer and supposed guardian Sylvester Sneekly, in a continuing effort to do away with Penelope, in order to make her family fortune his own. Sneekly would use his dual role (cartoon logic ignoring a limited disguise for his face and none for his voice) to set Penelope up for his latest trap, always in a different part of the world and based on the sights and history of the region, as well as the old-time damsel-in-distress stories.

Aiding him in this were two dim hirelings, the identical twin Bully Brothers. It seems likely the Claw wanted partners whom he could easily cheat should his schemes succeed, but failed to reckon with their dull-wittedness. Another factor likely holding him back (but firmly in keeping with the genre) was the complicated and slow-working nature of his death-traps. Frequently, one trap led right into another, with little or no stop till the end of the episode.

The Anthill Mob acted as Penelope's protectors: as easily fooled and misled as Penelope herself, but smarter than the Bully Brothers; once, when their personalities were inverted, their schemes to do away with Penelope were nearly successful. Modeled after the Seven Dwarfs, the Mob's members each had a signature trait that alternately aided Penelope, or got her, and them, into even deeper trouble, moments the Claw never hesitated to exploit. They were a determined, resourceful lot, and once they caught on to the Claw's inevitable involvement, they moved hard to save their pretty charge, who soon rescued them in return.

As the supposedly kind and caring Sylvester Sneekly, her guardian called his charge "Penelope," while the Claw referred to her only as "Pitstop." One joke by the Claw mentioned Dick Dastardly by name, possibly an indication that this show shared a world with Wacky Races and Dick Dastardly And His Flying Machines. Hanna-Barbera shows were known for this sort of humor, with Yogi Bear appearing on The Flintstones, and a classmate of Elroy Jetson's watching reruns of The Flintstones on a wristwatch-TV.

Sylvester Sneekly often gave hints to his true identity to Penelope, and once changed into the Hooded Claw costume in front of her, but Penelope was unable to believe that the guardian she admired was the Hooded Claw, and dismissed the idea.

Gallery[]

Trivia[]

The Hooded Claw was mentioned in the song "The Power Of Love" by Frankie Goes To Hollywood.
The Hooded Claw had a model in many serial feature villains, whose masked identity was not a mystery to the audience, and whose in-universe disguises were often comically flimsy, calling into question the intelligence of all involved.
- The Hooded Claw is particularly modeled on the villainous Raymond Owen (later renamed "Koerner" to capitalize on WWI anti-German sentiment) in the 1914 Pearl White serial, The Perils of Pauline, though strictly speaking, Owen was the secretary of Pauline's guardian rather than her guardian himself, and had an extra incentive to dispose of Pauline as early as possible, since her fortune would be settled on her entirely on the occasion of her impending marriage to her fiancé, Harry. There are no direct equivalents to the Bully Brothers, but Owen does hire occasional thugs to aid his plans.
Ironically, Sneekly's alias is confusing, since he neither wears a hood nor has any claws, which is part of the gag.
He is similar to Doctor Godber from Thunderbirds, because they are both interested in kidnapping a blonde heroine named Penelope.
In DC Comics' Hanna Barbera Crossover series, Scooby-Doo Team-Up, Issue 41, the series was resolved and Sneekly was finally unmasked as the Claw by the Scoobies.

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